Role Of Plants In Molecular Pharming: An Empirical Investigation Of Experts’ Opinion

Abstract

Plants have moved way beyond their popular ‘solitary’ function of photosynthesis and are now being used as repositories for growing therapeutic molecules, industrial enzymes, and even vaccines. This innovative use of plants has the potential to revolutionise the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, offering a more sustainable and cost-effective way to produce essential drugs and treatments. These plant factories are able to produce recombinant proteins of interest at a much cheaper rate than animal cell cultures, owing to their high scale-up capacity. Furthermore, India, being a predominantly agroeconomic country, has the infrastructure and street knowledge of farmers who can cultivate these ‘transgenic’ crops like any other crop they have been cultivating for years. Scientists and researchers need to develop and stabilise the technology for the farmers to grow and cultivate, and finally for the consumers to enjoy. This plant molecular farming technology is not easy to achieve, and production platforms are still better suited to other techniques. With so many benefits also come challenges associated with the implementation of the technology that spends years in the laboratory itself. Therefore, there is a need to carefully examine the ethical consequences and potential risks before widespread adoption, as well as invest in training and education for those who will be employing and preserving the technology. The researcher had considered experts from molecular farming industry to know the role of plants in molecular farming and found that Proteins industrial enzymes and animal feed supplements are produced in plant systems, Plants are used as repositories to grow therapeutic molecules, industrial enzymes, and even vaccines etc.